‘Once Upon A Time’s’ Robert Carlyle On Rumple’s Addiction To Power & Magic

Robert Carlyle as Rumple in ‘Once Upon a Time’ (ABC)

Rumplestiltskin has a big secret he’s keeping from wife Belle on “Once Upon a Time.”

Belle (Emilie de Ravin) doesn’t actually have the dagger that controls the dark one, and Robert Carlyle said it is painful for Rumple to keep the truth from the person he loves.

“I think it does affect him. … He’s certainly not happy about it. But, the problem is he’s an addict, you know, he’s addicted,” Robert said last week on the “Once Upon a Time” set in Vancouver. “He’s actually addicted to magic, he’s addicted to the power. That has been his life for hundreds of years, even before he met her. And it’s still — even after he had met her, it’s still the thing that drives him, so even though he loves her, and he does no doubt, he loves her more than anything, he just can’t let that go. That’s his Achilles heel, you know, that addiction to power. He has trouble moving on to another life.”

And Rumple is still harboring a lot of hate for Hook, who his former wife, Milah, chose over him a long time ago in Fairytale Land.

“He’s never ever forgotten that. He actually brings that up [in a later episode]. He actually says that and brings Milah’s name up yet again,” Robert said.

 

In last week’s “Once,” Colin O’Donoghue’s Hook struck a deal with the dark one to get his hand back for his date with Emma. Things didn’t work out so well for the pirate, and he ended up under Rumple’s thumb as every deal with Rumple and all magic comes at a price.

“He doesn’t care about Hook,” Robert said. “To Rumple, he deserves to die, but he deserved to die a long time ago because he tried to kill him, remember? So he’s let that go for quite a long time. So this is just coming around, sort of what goes around comes around.

“But with Belle it’s a different thing, I think he does feel bad about that,” the actor continued. “He’s not happy with that in any way.”

“Once Upon a Time” continues Sunday nights at 8/7c on ABC.

Production assistance provided by ABC.

Jolie Lash

 

 

 

 

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